New Year's Celebration

So Eric and I did a little something different this year for New Year's Eve... Eric wanted to get out of town, and he received and email from Eataly in Chicago (yes, that Italian market/grocery store we discovers) and they were doing a 4-course dinner and champagne toast celebration. It seemed a little odd to me, at first, but the price was right and we figure 'why not?' and gave it a try.

We drove up kind of late yesterday afternoon, and got to the hotel with about an hour or so to relax and freshen-up for the big night. The dinner didn't start until after 9pm (after the store closed, basically). It was just a block from our hotel, so despite the frigid temps, it was an easy walk, even all dressed up. We weren't quite sure what to expect, and I'm thinkng this was the first year they did this. Not to say it wasn't organized... but you could tell they were still trying to figure some things out.

The dinner was absolutely awesome! We enjoys every bite we could, and they timed things great so that everyone wrapped up dinner around 11:30pm or so. Which gave people enough time to shuffle over to where the champagne and desserts were set up for the big countdown. They even had horns and hats for everyone to don, if desired. The only thing missing... the actual countdown! about 5 minutes before, they announced to make sure to have your champagne if you wanted it, but then there was no actual countdown. On of the guests was watching their phone and counted down the last 5 seconds or so, and that was it! It was kind of funny, but also disappointing. Like I said, I think they were still figuring things out, a bit.

But here we are in the new year. 2016, already! Here's hoping for a great year ahead!